A new peer-reviewed scientific study conducted by the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT) has found that breeding curlews are raising four times as many chicks on the UK’s grouse moors compared to similar unmanaged moorland sites.
The research shows that, in addition to maintaining healthy numbers of curlew, grouse moor management can provide a surplus of fledglings, potentially aiding species recovery. Curlew reared 1.05 fledglings per pair on grouse moors, almost double the rate of 0.5 – 0.6 needed to keep numbers stable. In contrast, on nearby non-grouse moors, they only fledged 0.27 chicks per pair, well below that break-even point.
This is significant as the UK curlew population has been steadily declining since the 1990s, despite the fact that around a quarter of the world’s curlew breed here. The species has IUCN Near Threatened status and is red-listed in the UK.
Dr Dave Baines, Director of Upland Research who led the project, said: “This study shows that the provision of suitable habitat alone is insufficient to prevent the decline of the curlew, which is threatened with extinction in many parts of the UK. By providing adequate control of generalist avian and mammalian predators alongside suitable habitat, grouse moor management not only maintains stable numbers of curlew and other waders, but also increases their productivity to the point of generating a surplus. In contrast, the control sites used in the comparative study, which had similar habitat but lacked predation management, saw continued declines.”
The team of scientists found that twice as many waders, on average four species, were recorded on grouse moors compared to non-grouse moors, where on average three species were seen. On grouse moors, it was estimated that two thirds of curlew pairs successfully hatched chicks, compared to just 17% of pairs on non-grouse moors.
The study, which was published in the European Journal of Wildlife Research, suggests that without predator control on UK grouse moors, and specifically the control of foxes and corvids, national curlew declines would have been more severe.
A new scientific study conducted by the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT) has revealed that breeding curlews are rearing four times as many chicks on UK grouse moors compared to similar unmanaged moorland sites.
The research, which was published in the European Journal of Wildlife Research, shows that grouse moor management can provide a surplus of fledglings, potentially aiding species recovery. Curlew reared 1.05 fledglings per pair on grouse moors, almost double the rate of 0.5 – 0.6 needed to keep numbers stable. In comparison, on nearby non-grouse moors, they only fledged 0.27 chicks per pair, well below the break-even point.
This is concerning as the UK curlew population has been steadily declining since the 1990s, despite the fact that around a quarter of the world’s curlew breed here. The species has IUCN Near Threatened status and is red-listed in the UK.
Dr Dave Baines, Director of Upland Research and leader of the project, said: “This study shows that the provision of suitable habitat alone is insufficient to prevent the decline of the curlew, which is threatened with extinction in many parts of the UK. By providing adequate control of generalist avian and mammalian predators alongside suitable habitat, grouse moor management not only maintains stable numbers of curlew and other waders, but also increases their productivity to the point of generating a surplus.”
The team of scientists found that twice as many waders, on average four species, were recorded on grouse moors compared to non-grouse moors, where on average three species were seen. The study suggests that without predator control on UK grouse moors, and specifically the control of foxes and corvids, national curlew declines would have been more severe.
This research was funded by the G & K Boyes Charitable Trust, which supports charitable organisations with a focus on education, training, advancement of health or saving lives, arts, culture, heritage, science, environment and conservation.
A new scientific study conducted by the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT) has revealed that breeding curlews are rearing four times as many chicks on UK grouse moors compared to similar unmanaged moorland sites.
The research, which was published in the European Journal of Wildlife Research, shows that grouse moor
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